Blind Eye
by Ryer Ord Star
Summary: A story about Daine and Numair's child...she's part of the Riders, and I hope it will be good! Please R&R!
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer~ Any characters you recognize will belong to Tamora Pierce. Anything else is probably done by me, and this holds for the entire story.  
  
p* * * * *  
  
pBriani leaned into her lover's embrace and felt his warmth against her bare skin, cuddling closer to Jax and caressing him just an hour before Sarge would call the Riders out of their barracks. Briani, daughter of Veralidaine Sarrasri and Numair Salmálin, left a kiss on his cheek and jumped out of his bed.  
  
pWhile on the floor wrapped only in a blanket, she hastened to the girl's barracks and hastily changed back into her tight-fitting Shang style of fighter clothing she preferred. After wrapping a hair tie around her black tangle, she marched soldier-style out to the Stables, hoping to catch an early glimpse of Iune and Hawk.  
  
pIune, a patient sorrel mare as always, was anxious to rub against her, her abnormally short snout searching with an amusing urgency for food in any of Briani's non-existant pockets. "Slow down!" she cried, laughing and hefting the dagger out of its sheath and mock-pointing its tip at Iune. "Or I might just sell you to the man who makes dumplings down the road," she said, eyes dancing at the old family threat.  
  
pIune calmed down after that and Briani leaned against her stall, sighing. "I had hoped Jax might be it, but it's pretty clear he isn't."  
  
pThe mare snorted in agreement, as if she had known he wouldn't be, and that Briani was getting a bad reputation of "sleeping around" because of it.  
  
p"I know, I know!" she cried angrily. II just can't help it,/I she told the mare privately, using her grasp of wild magic to communicate.  
  
pIYou should have been able to. Just because you want what your parent's have doesn't mean you have to give yourself that kind of reputation in the process./I  
  
p"Oh hush," she said crossly and stormed over angrily to Hawk's stall, comfortingly giving him an apple as Iune snorted indignantly. "You've had more mistresses than we know, right Hawk? I bet Iune was even one of them."  
  
pII am a stallion. Stallions can maintain that reputation. After all, we're "just horses". But you are a human, and I have known it is not good for your kind./I  
  
pBriani gave up in exasperation and finally slumped against her stall, waiting for the alarm call now, as Jax came out, an angry look on his face.  
  
p"Well? What have you to say!?"  
  
p"It was…fun, but you're not the one, Jax," she said desperately, grasping in vain for the words.  
  
p"Oh? So this is how it's always going to be for you? I should remind you, I can very well do what I please with you!" he cried, walking angrily forward.  
  
"Touch me and die," Briani whispered fiercely and Jax backed off, running off in a palpable fury as Briani turned to Sphinx, the tabby cat she had somehow "adopted" coming out from the shadows in the corner.  
  
pIWhy do they all have to end this way?!  
  
pYou set them up for it. Female cats are much smarter; we don't form alliances and let all the males have their turn./I  
  
p"You might, but not all do," Briani sharply pointed out.  
  
pAs the morning call came swiftly, Briani hefted up her brush for cleaning Iune and Hawk, knowing already that the rumors must have already spread with Jax angry and willing to tell them about her "behavior". Not like he hadn't done the same to Vora, who Briani had heard the tale from.  
  
pAmber eyes peering out, she motioned for a sleepy-eyed Cabarey to come over to her. Briani had made friends with Cabarey when she had found out that their horses' stalls were right next to one another.  
  
p"'Lo Ani. Got into trouble with another boy last night?" she asked, barely awake and brushing Sord, her bay gelding with uneven strokes as bleary eyes glanced up.  
  
pBriani made a face and tossed her a hair tie which the girl gratefully accepted, her plain breeches showing that, even after as long as they'd been here, Cabarey still wasn't used to their back-breaking schedule.  
  
p"Rumor has it that a new boy's come in. Gonna try your luck with him as well? Name's Xall. No one knows where he's from."  
  
pHer pale face showing a spark of interest, Briani perked up then sighed. "I'm done with boys, Rey, at least for now. Sick of them and all the problems they cause."  
  
pCabarey shrugged and continued over to her palomino stallion, Tebar, and gave him similar treatment.  
  
p* * * * *  
  
pXall looked across the ranks of riders restlessly, and leaned against the wall listening to the conversation with his Mage Sight, which also, as a fluke, it would seem, increased his hearing range quite a bit. While waiting for their meeting to finish and for them to instruct him, he was at loose ends.  
  
1 p"I just don't get it. She's Daine's and Numair's child, why is she like this?"  
  
p"I don't know. She took me into her confidence when she was angry, and told me she was looking for 'the one'. I think she wants the kind of forever relationship her parents have. However, she's one of our best riders, and I won't toss her out on that fact and the fact that she's Daine's child. I owe Daine a lot. We owe each other a lot, though Daine might not consider she gave me anything." This sounded like Onua's voice.  
  
p"And Xall. Why does he want to keep his parentage a secret?"  
  
p"That's his business. And he could be listening with that damned Mage Sight he inherited from his father."  
  
pBlushing, Xall quickly closed the connection and decided it might be better to wait until the conversation was over, patiently.  
  
p* * * * *  
  
pMeanwhile, in Corus:  
  
p"There's talk of a new Court of the Rogue forming."  
  
p"Aye, mayhaps. If'n more is what be your interest, than a coin or two is what'll be needed," the drunkard replied.  
  
pThe stranger gave him the coins and the man grinned. "Ask for Ghorom at the Dancing Dove. They'll know."  
  
pThe figure cloaked in black nodded and ran the man through. Witnesses could not and would not be left.  
  
pWhen the stranger walked into the Dancing Dove, the room went silent. No eyes focused on them, more they returned quickly to the cards and silent dancers in front of them. "I'm looking for the one they call Ghorom," it said quietly.  
  
pA nervous barmaid stepped forward and led the figure in, to a man who sat, supping a bottle of brandy. The stranger took off –her- cloak and revealed herself. "Viannon of Tirragen, looking for information on the new Court forming. I was told you'd help."  
  
pThe man looked up from his bottle, eyes red. "I might, at that. I want the name of your employer, if you're to have any information from me. And don't think about holding a knife to my throat. The Black God doesn't scare me anymore. And don't think you can get away with knifing me like you did the one who gave me my name when you're done with me."  
  
pViannon stepped back, startled, but quickly regained her composure. "Very well. My employer was my husband, Alexander of Tirragen, and now I work in a partnership with Namander of Stone Mountain. We all have much to settle with Tortall."  
  
The man nodded. "Said to be run by Werehn, at least that's what the fellow calls himself. Got himself a bit of a court already, rumor speaks. I ain't be knowing the location-"  
  
pAt this point, Viannon yanked the bottle away and the old man stared vacantly. "Deadman's District. Third sewer tunnel. Up into the boarded old building at the corner."  
  
pViannon threw the bottle at his head, satisfied he would not remember their conversation with a touch of her copper-brown Gift to help along the process. All was making itself known…  
  
p* * * * *  
  
pMy first fanfiction anywhere! Can you please read and review? I'd really appreciate it ^_^ 


	2. Conversation and a Battle

Thanks for the reviews! Here's the next chapter:  
  
  
  
Briani shrugged off her clothes and slipped on her nightgown, climbing into her bed. She knew what her teachers thought of her; she was an enigma. Like her parents, yet…not, in a way. They also strongly disapproved about her affairs, and she'd decided to appease them. She was swearing off boys until she found one she thought she could agree with.  
  
Cabarey, in the bunk above her, snorted and rolled over as she sighed, and Sphinx hopped up onto her bed. 'I told you we were smarter' the cat informed her.  
  
'Fine. I concede. Very well and all, but what did you find out?' Briani had been sending Sphinx on "night errands" for a while now, to see what motions and such she could pick up from watching her teachers.  
  
'They had another person with them as they talked,' Sphinx continued as Briani sat straight up in bed, hitting her head on the bunk above, and cursing silently.  
  
'Who?' she demanded.  
  
'You call all the toms for a mile around with that People thing inside of you and I'll tell you whatever you want.'  
  
'You're worse than I am. But fine.' Mentally she sent out her call to all the male cats she could find, but told them once they spied the female, to take it somewhere else, away from the girl's barracks, as she wanted to sleep tonight.  
  
Sphinx heard a soft mew and smiled. 'A lady who was short and old, wearing cold-weather gear. She had a bag filled with some green leaves.' And with that, Sphinx was off to join the toms.  
  
"A Doi," she whispered to herself. Well, tomorrow, she would see what transpired.  
  
* * * * *  
  
The next morning's rising went the same as always, and Briani struggled through her day, finally walking out to listen to Sarge, about the Doi, she presumed.  
  
"Now, we're going to have a Doi here to tell fortunes. You lazy lot have a break from all chores today, so I suggest you enjoy it."  
  
As they lined up for their turn – girls first, of course, the Doi told everyone their fortunes. Cabarey came before Briani, and of course Briani wanted to know what had happened.  
  
"She said that I'd be a Rider for as long as I could be. She didn't say what would pull me away from it, though. Maybe a boy?" Cabarey said, quirking an eyebrow.  
  
"Aw, be quiet Cabarey, I'm up next."  
  
The Doi hooked her "claws" into Briani's arm and pulled her forward, her eyes staring with a greedy hunger, and the voice that emerged was far from pleasant.  
  
"You're mine, child." Silver fire whiplashed out, making it apparent in seconds that this was no true Doi. The fire sought hungrily for Briani's neck, and the girl tried to call up her small reserve of Gift passed on by her father, a forest green in color, to ward it off. But the other's Gift was too strong, and she was weakening.  
  
Then gold-edged brown fire lashed out and struck the silver away. This spurred the rest of the area into action. Numair Salmálin's Gift encircled the false Doi, for he and Daine were there for a certain "conference". Briani quickly bonded with Daine as they fought together to call all the animals to their defense. A wall of teeth and claws leapt up to shield them from the onslaught of black-garbed warriors that advanced, and Briani was struck by what must be an amazing symmetry to part of her mother's time at the Riders.  
  
Briani grabbed her dagger from her belt and stabbed one of her attackers in the back. Another was quickly dispatched, and a third followed his friends to the ground. And then something surged up within her, flowing in a sinuous wave of copper and green to hit down all the attackers…but it was also indiscriminate in its choice of victims. Briani watched in horror as the magic defeated her attempts to master it as it knocked down more and more Riders.  
  
Finally with a scream of mingled pain and triumph, Briani silenced the wild blast and collapsed, but the battle was not done raging. Her indiscriminate combination of Gift and Wild Magic had left unconscious both their people and the enemies, so she had both helped and hurt them.  
  
From up in the trees, Viannon of Tirragen watched the assembly of her fighters getting shot down by a girl's corrupted Gift, or so, it would seem. She cursed softly. This girl was the only one who knew of the Rogue besides herself and Namander. And the Rogue was the key to it all.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Briani awoke propped up against a chair in the discussion room of the Barracks. There was a boy she had never seen before –and therefore she presumed he must be Xall- and Buri, Onua, and Sarge. They paused the low humming of their voices as soon as her eyes fluttered open.  
  
"What happened?" she demanded to know.  
  
"There was an attack. And we have reason to believe that you were the target of it," Onua said carefully.  
  
"No. I meant, who saved me? Some brown and gold magic-"  
  
"That was Xall here," Sarge interrupted, pointing to the boy seated next to her. His hair was brown and he was handsome, by any standards, with a wry smile, and Briani was surprised to feel something catch in her heart, but dismissed it a moment later.  
  
While the others discussed what was to be done, Briani turned shyly to Xall. "Thank you for saving me," she whispered.  
  
"You're welcome," he replied.  
  
"Why did you?"  
  
"You needed help," he answered, shrugging.  
  
"Oh."  
  
"You want to leave?" he suggested, seeing that their teachers wouldn't be done talking for a while, and wouldn't have any more need to talk to them.  
  
"Okay…" she said cautiously.  
  
When someone saves your life, it's rather hard to stop a friendship from developing, as Briani quickly found out.  
  
"So, you have Wild Magic and the Gift?"  
  
"Yes. I think it will be a problem though. When I use one, they try to mix. I can't always stop them," she said, blushing. "You saw what happened today. And I managed to have it break my arm and knock out about half the Rider population."  
  
Briani shifted her broken arm and slipped down a stair, thanking Xall quickly as he prevented her from falling. They talked some more, about where rumor held they would be spending the summer.  
  
"Rumor has it that they're thinking of having it near the woods near Corus and in the palace itself, or so Queen Thayet has decreed."  
  
"Palace probably means balls. Ugh. But the woods would be interesting," she said thoughtfully, her interest piqued.  
  
"Why do balls upset you?"  
  
"First, the frippery they make you wear, and second, the fact that everyone always finds a boy or girl to spend the night with and abandons their poor friends. Even Cabarey found someone last year, and they're still exchanging mushy love poems. It just annoys me."  
  
That night, Briani sat in her bed, thinking about how Xall was different from any boy she knew because he asked reasonable questions and didn't ignore her like the other boys did whenever they weren't entertaining the immediate prospect of sharing a bed with her. At the same time, Viannon was talking to Namander about their plans to control the new-forming Rogue…  
  
  
  
Thanks for the R&R everybody! I decided to stop using Xall to think through, as that started to confuse me too…so, tell me if you like it! I'm always open for suggestions, so R&R! 


End file.
